There are huge spaces under the capital where we live. It is a cluster of mysterious ruins built long ago during “the ancient age.”

Sensible adults rarely walk into the ruins.

A half century ago, the underground was teeming with monsters—the living weapons created from gene reconstruction. My father said most fools who went into the ruins were eaten by nightmarish creatures.

But the place had already become quiet and calm by the time I first entered. I’d seen no monsters in the tunnels until that day.

I left school early and explored the ruins every week, carrying a lamp, a gas detector, and a multipurpose knife. My father didn’t come home from the academy until late at night, and my nanny was busy with her dating.

I picked up bits of ore and fossils and hid them in drawers, little by little. Some of them remain on my desk even now as my unforgotten souvenirs.

Eventually, I noticed people who were also exploring alone. We didn’t tell one another our names but shared our lunches and water. Some seemed to be Seekers, and others looked like Meccanians or Empire nobles, but none of us cared. That was the way we were. I liked the unspoken rule.

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There was an area of safety under the arch of the giant’s foot. For me, the tunnels were my refuge. Even though the oppressive Empire thought it had trampled all free will in the continent, the ground beneath the earth gave us the freedom to ignore it.

Looking back, I might have let my guard down because of my false sense of security.

When a shadow of a large creature I’d never seen appeared that day, I accidentally slipped in the channel in surprise.

My new companion and I were walking along the faint luminescent bank, talking to each other. Mainly, I spoke to him. “Maybe it was Seekers’ Coolia. Those ancient aggressive creatures must have disappeared from the ruins completely after the Great Fall.”

“They were gone?” he replied without looking back at me.

“I think all the monsters died then, and we’re safe now in the ruins, although most adults still fear this place. It’s good for me to explore without weapons. I’ve never shot guns in my life. I appreciate the Great Fall!”

“Good for you,” he said.

He seemed to get a little cranky when I mentioned the Great Fall, but I continued talking. “Please tell me the nearest way to the ground. Where did you come from?”

He didn’t have a large pack of supplies, so I assumed he came from nearby.

“Nonsense.” His lips moved under the hood. “You’ve run away from there, but now you want to return. Why?”

I thought he spoke awkwardly, as if a child were reading from a script in a monotone voice.

The lantern light flared. He raised it forward with his thin hand, which was covered in a tight-fitting black leather glove.

“Well, fine,” he said. “Follow me.”

I had no other choice but to comply. My compass was beyond the water channel.

“The deepest route leads to the exit.”